U.S. won’t force Morsi-Bibi meeting, Clinton says

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should meet, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, but the Obama administration will not force the issue.

"It is up to the two nations and the president and the prime minister to make their own scheduling plans," Clinton said Saturday during a news conference in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr. "We have done nothing. That’s not our role; that would not be appropriate."

In answer to a reporter’s question about the peace treaty signed more than 30 years ago between Israel and Egypt, Amr said during the news conference that "Egypt continues to respect all treaties signed as long as the other party to the treaty respects the treaty itself."

He added that Morsi on Saturday "reiterated that Egypt’s understanding of peace is that it should be comprehensive, exactly as stipulated in the treaty itself," including Israel’s return to pre-June 4, 1967 borders and a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.